It is generally known to a person skilled in the art of anti-friction bearings that solid-bodied anti-friction bearings consist essentially of an outer bearing ring and of an inner bearing ring and also of a number of rolling bodies which are arranged between the bearing rings and which roll on a raceway of the outer bearing ring and on a raceway of the inner bearing ring without any cage guidance with respect to one another. Since anti-friction bearings of this type are distinguished by a high load-bearing capacity and, in addition to radial forces, are also to absorb axial forces in both directions, they must have, both on the outer and on the inner bearing ring, a lateral delimitation of their raceways by means of rims on which the rolling bodies can be supported for force transmission. If these rims are then designed as peripherally continuous rims connected in one piece to the bearing rings, however, it is not possible, as a consequence of construction, to fill the anti-friction bearing with rolling bodies completely without interspaces.
To eliminate this deficiency, therefore, it became known to arrange on one side of the anti-friction bearing, in the opposite rims of the outer and of the inner bearing ring, a clearance corresponding to the shape of the rolling bodies and acting as a filling orifice through which the rolling bodies are introduced into the anti-friction bearing and distributed. However, as a rule, this filling orifice remains unclosed and therefore has the disadvantage that, when the bearing is in operation, the rolling bodies always have to run past this filling orifice. Particularly where grooved ball bearings are concerned, in which the filling orifice issues into the raceways of the rolling bodies, the result of this, however, is that a “catching” or jamming of the rolling bodies at this filling orifice may occur, above all when axial forces press the rolling bodies against the rims of the anti-friction bearing which are provided with the filling orifice.
It was therefore proposed by DE 24 07 477 A1 to reseal the filling orifice in the rims of the bearing rings after filling the anti-friction bearing with the rolling bodies, in such a way that the closing pieces previously broken out of the rims of the bearing rings via a milled predetermined breaking notch are inserted into the rims again by adhesive bonding or welding. Although such a type of closing of the filling orifice is to have the advantage that the closing pieces do not form, with respect to the rim guide surface, any edges at which a “hooking” of the rolling bodies or a scraping of their end faces may occur, nevertheless, by the closing pieces being bonded in adhesively or welded, adverse burrs or adhesive excesses may form on the rim guide surface and may result, as before, in such a “hooking” of the rolling bodies or in a scraping of their end faces. Furthermore, the junctions of the closing pieces with the remaining rim always constitute a weak point in terms of their resistance, so that anti-friction bearings of this type can, in one direction, be loaded axially to only a limited extent.
A further possibility for providing a solid-bodied anti-friction bearing is disclosed, moreover, in DE 102 20 419 A1. In this anti-friction bearing designed as a cylindrical roller bearing, only the raceway of the outer or of the inner bearing ring has two lateral rims connected in one piece to the latter, whereas the raceway of the other bearing ring is delimited on only one side by such a rim. The second rim of this bearing ring is formed by a separate component, which, after the anti-friction bearing has been filled with the cylindrical rollers, is snapped from the rimless side of the one bearing ring into a peripheral radial slot in the border area of the raceway of this bearing ring.
Such an anti-friction bearing has the disadvantage, however, that the rim designed as a separate component and its fastening to the corresponding bearing ring require an additional outlay in manufacturing and assembly terms which adversely increases the production costs for the anti-friction bearing. Moreover, here too, the separately fastened rim constitutes a weak point in terms of its strength, as compared with the remaining rims of the bearing which are connected in one piece to the bearing rings, and therefore even an anti-friction bearing designed in this way can be loaded to only a limited extent in one axial direction.